The Future of Game Consoles Isn’t Just About Games

If you listen to the gamers, Sony has already won the console war with Microsoft. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo—the most important video-game convention of the year—on Monday night, the company announced that its forthcoming product, the PlayStation 4, will sell for four hundred dollars in the U.S., making it a hundred dollars cheaper than Microsoft’s competing Xbox One. It also announced, to thunderous applause, that gamers will continue to be able to loan disc-based games to their friends, and play used games on their consoles.

The excitement around that seemingly mundane feature stems from a deep resentment among gamers toward the Xbox One’s groundbreaking approach to product ownership and rights. Microsoft’s system treats all games, whether downloaded from the Internet or copied off a disc, the same—as pure, licensed bits. Under the new restrictions, users cannot loan a copy of the new Halo game (for example) to a friend; they can only give it away, and, even then, only if they’ve been “friends” on Xbox Live for at least thirty days. Microsoft has also attempted to vaporize the used-games market, stipulating that Xbox One discs cannot be resold unless a game’s publisher allows it. Microsoft’s policies make it clear that customers do not own the intellectual property they pay to enjoy, they merely have a license to use it.

It’s in this capacity that, ultimately, the Xbox One seems more compelling than the PS4. Microsoft’s device aims to completely overhaul the television experience, providing its own interface for watching cable, satellite television, and NFL games, for example. It’s designed to be expanded upon by third-party applications, letting users multi-task with services like Skype while gaming. And the new version of its Kinect motion-and-speech-sensing peripheral allows for in-depth control of the console with your voice. You can turn it on by talking to it, and you can hunt for something to watch, too. The new Kinect also “sees” with much higher fidelity than its previous iteration; at a demo in Seattle, it made out the wrinkles in my shirt from several feet away. The device is also built to fit neatly into Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 ecosystem, allowing for more seamless relationships between P.C.s, smartphones, and Xboxes.

So far, meanwhile, Sony has persisted in emphasizing the PlayStation 4’s gaming bona fides. At the All Things Digital conference last month, the Sony C.E.O. Kaz Hirai said, “The most important thing we need to do is agree and understand that the PS4 is a great video-game console that appeals to video gamers.” While the PS4 will, of course, feature music and video streaming from services like Netflix, it won’t connect to a larger universe of devices, services, and software in the way that Microsoft’s and Apple’s offerings do. The PS4’s camera accessory looks potentially interesting; it’s an optional add-on that will only be connected to a subset of consoles, which will likely limit its ability to be transformative. The PS4’s most compelling connected features, as far as we know, are directly tied to gaming. Sony recently acquired the Gaikai streaming service, which will allow gamers to stream old PS3 games, rather than download them, and to play them on the fly. Gamers can play PS4 titles on the PS Vita, Sony’s portable console, over Wi-Fi. But that device, which was targeted at hardcore gamers, has seen tepid sales, and Sony expects to sell just five million of them this fiscal year. Gamers can also broadcast their gaming experiences with a dedicated “share” button on the PS4’s controller, but the audience for such clips is undoubtedly restricted to fellow enthusiasts.

The PlayStation 4 will probably outsell the Xbox One this holiday season, its sales powered by gamers’ disgruntlement over licensing rights and the hundred-dollar price difference between the consoles, a deciding factor for the parental crowd. And, indeed, the PS4 may turn out to be a better console for the most hardcore gaming audience. But the Xbox One is the most connected console ever devised—a source of its issues, unquestionably, but also why it seems more likely to be the box you’ll want connected to your TV four years from now.